Homecoming
by TheRedRidingHood
Summary: lame title i know, but this is basically a one shot idea i had ages ago and have had on my comp for months, about what if the summer before his death, speedle had come to NY. RR,this is just something until i come up with a more substantial story for y'al


Okay, since the fiends killed off Speed, this'll have to be set in…I don't know, the summer between the CSI Miami/NY cross over and the new series of both shows. We all know that Speed is originally from New York so this is based around that. This isn't exactly Speed centric, its not really anyone centric its just something that could have happened. All disclaimers apply, I don't own CSI Miami or CSI NY, (but they will be mine, oh yes, they will be mine…). Warnings for language and content, there will definitely be violence oh yes there will. This is a one shot for obvious reasons BUT, if you guys really like it, I was thinking it might be a bit fun to do a sort of alternate reality type of deal where Speedle moved to NY rather than being killed (damn the fiends)

No pairings, although there will be some flirtation going on and some mutual attraction between the CSI's, mostly Danny and Aiden.

* * *

Timothy 'Speed' Speedle hefted the bag on his shoulder as the burly security guard scrutinised his ID. Speed's gun lay on the desk in front of him, along with his gun permit and a letter explaining what he was doing.

The guard sniffed, wiping his nose on the back of his hand, raising his arm enough that Speed could see the sweat patches under his arms, staining his blue shirt. The fan behind the guard was on a on a pivot and turned to blow air directly at the guards back as his arm raised up. Speed clenched his teeth, feeling his face freeze as he tried to hide his disgust as the smell of the guards body odour wafted directly into his face.

"Alright" the guard shrugged, dropping Speed's ID on the desk "You're legit. Just present all of this to any guard who asks you, and don't scare the civvies with that, keep it under your jacket" he sniffed.

"It's like, a million degrees" Speed stated "I'll carry it in my bag"

The guard shrugged again and turned away as Speed gathered his belongings together and put them in the battered back pack. He actually paused for a second and looked at the bag. It and Speed hadn't been in New York for a decade. And now, they where home.

Speed ignored the thought that it didn't feel like he was coming home and picked up the bag, swinging it onto his shoulder. He reached the baggage collection and picked up his duffel bag and headed through to the arrivals area.

Speed rubbed his hand through his curly black hair and realised he needed a cut. He couldn't see anyone he recognised, no surprise there, he hadn't even told his parents he was coming back into town. "Speedle? Tim Speedle?" somebody yelled. The voice had a strong New York accent and sounded vaguely familiar. Speed recognised it as the person he had talked to briefly on the phone a few weeks previously, comparing finger prints in a case that had crossed state lines. It belonged to one Danny Messer, detective and CSI for the NYPD.

Speed looked around and saw a blonde haired man in a dark suit standing beside a taller, darker haired man who was looking at everyone as if they had committed a crime.

Speed walked toward them, nodding a greeting as taller guy spotted him.

"Tim Speedle?" he called out.

"Yeah" Speed replied "But everyone just calls me Speed"

"I'm Don Flack this is Danny Messer, how was your flight?" Flack asked as he shook hands with Speed.

"I slept through it. The in flight movie was some kids cartoon so held my breath 'til I passed out" Speed grinned.

Flack chuckled and took the duffel bag from Speed.

"Speed, good to meet you" Danny grinned a Cheshire cat grin as he shook hands with Speed "Welcome to New York" he said.

"Actually I'm from New York, I left a long time ago" Speed told him.

"Yeah?" Danny looked up at him. Behind frameless glasses he had blue eyes.

"Yeah, this is kinda, the first time I've been back actually. In a decade" Speed stated.

"Huh." Danny bit his bottom lip "How's that feel?" he asked.

"Weird" Speed admitted "I feel like I should maybe…call my parents" he said.

"You haven't talked to em since you left?" Danny stared at him.

"No, I have…I just haven't seen them" Speed frowned.

There was a pause. "You wanna call them now?" Flack asked.

"No…it's been ten years, another couple of hours wont hurt" Speed shook his head.

"Alright. Well we where gonna get something to eat, you hungry?" Flack asked as he began to walk in the direction of the doors.

"I am, yeah" Speed told them.

"Alright, food first, then we'll go meet Mac" Danny grinned again.

They ended up in a diner in New York city. Speed was eating a burger and fries while Flack devoured a chilli dog and Danny demolished a cheeseburger.

"Hey is it true about the alligators in Miami?" Danny asked as he sipped at a soda.

"How do you mean?" Speed asked.

"Are they actually everywhere?" Danny was rubbing the nail of his index finger with his thumb. In the short time he had known him, Speed had noticed that Danny was a ball of nervous energy, he simply never stopped moving, even if it was just tapping his fingers.

"Well, yeah, kind of, if you go out in the swamps you have to go with a rifle otherwise you're in trouble. I got a buddy, guy named Delko, he used to be a retrieval diver before he changed over to CSI, we had to spot him whenever he went out in the swamp water cos the gators'll just swim up and eat you" Speed told them. "It's a bitch if somebody's dumped a body or a car or something in the marshes, once we had to actually flush a gators stomach to retrieve a human foot" he finished.

"Holy shit" Danny stated. "That's gotta make it interesting at least?" he grinned.

Speed laughed "Yeah, it really does"

"The most interesting thing we have to shoot at is rats, but they're _really_ big" Danny held his hands apart, indicating the size of the mega rats.

Speed grinned, eating the last of his burger.

The other two finished and the three of them split the bill.

As they drove through the city Speed gazed out at the familiar streets. Danny was sitting in the passenger seat playing a game he called mook spotting.

"What are the rules again?" Speed asked.

"You see a mook or mobster, you tell us where he is, we decide if he A) is in fact a mook, and B) who he's tied to, like, Italian, Irish, hell even neo Nazi" Danny explained.

"We played goin to pick you up, I won four to three" Flack put in as he turned a corner.

"That many huh?" Speed asked sarcastically.

"Well it's Saturday" Flack shrugged.

"Irish mook, on ya left!" Danny almost yelled, pointing across Flack.

"Hey, watch the arm! You tryna kill us, ya melon head, quit playin around" Flack said, although he smiled and checked out the mook.

Speed spotted the guy, wearing jeans and a leather jacket, his hands in his pockets, hunched up as if he was cold.

The guy had red hair and freckles and was most definitely some kind of Irish heavy. "Alright, Messer gets one" Flack admitted.

"Two, he just met some even bigger even more Irish buddy check it out" Danny pointed again.

"Danny I'm serious I'll smack you right in the head" Flack warned.

"You'll try" Danny grinned again.

"On your right, I'm thinking Russian" Speed pointed out of his window.

Danny looked over. "Good call, I happen to know for a that that guy is in fact, an enforcer for the Russian mob. Because I've arrested him" Danny told them. "I didn't know he was out…remind me to check on that when we get to the lab" he drummed out a rhythm on the dash board.

"Speaking of which…" Flack told them as they pulled up outside the lab.

"Cool" Danny grinned yet again "Oh by the way Speed, you're gonna be crashin at my place I gotta spare bedroom. It's easier than putting you up in a hotel. And cheaper" Danny told Speed "You can leave your bags in the car for now"

Speed nodded, taking his back pack but leaving his duffel.

They walked into the lab, Speed 'wowing' at the mix of old architecture with ultra modern equipment.

"Yeah we just kinda made our self at home" Flack explained.

They headed into the lounge and sat down, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive.

Stella Bonasera came first, striding into the lab and heading straight for the coffee pot. She poured a large cup, swigging almost half of it before she turned back to face the men in the room. Speed smiled at her as she swallowed the mouthful of coffee. "Sorry, I'm pulling a triple" she said almost immediately, stepping forward to shake his offered hand "I'm Stella Bonasera"

"Tim Speedle, Speed" Speed grinned again. "Don't apologize, if I could replace my blood with coffee I would" he chuckled.

"Oh that would save me so much time" Stella grinned back. "So, how are you liking New York so far?" she asked.

"Oh he's from here" Danny told her as he sat down opposite Speed.

"Oh, so this is a homecoming for you? How long have you been away?" Stella refilled her coffee cup.

"Um, ten years" Speed nodded.

"Wow…and you haven't been back since?" Stella sat beside Danny "That must have been a big fight you had with, what, your parents, your girlfriend?" she left the question for him to answer.

Speed hesitated "Some things happened that I wasn't ready to deal with and I didn't feel like I could stay here. I…moved around for a year and ended up in Miami and, never left" he told them.

Stella nodded, realising that it wasn't a subject Speed was going to build on.

Aiden Burns, the newest, youngest CSI walked into the room. "Hi" She said confidently "I'm Aiden Burns, you're Tim Speedle right?" she stuck her hand out for him to shake.

Speed shook it and nodded in response as Mac Taylor walked into the lab. "Speedle? I'm Mac Taylor, I'm the supervisor. Horatio Caine has told me a nothing but good things about you" Mac said as Speed stood to shake his hand.

"Yeah he told us good things about you guys when he came back" Speed said.

"He was an… interesting guy" Mac said smiling.

"Yeah, yeah he is, interesting" Speed chuckled.

"So you're gonna be working with us for a while. Okay, the bad news is, we literally just got a call so you're gonna be thrown, pretty much right into it, we'll organise you with a crime scene kit-you have your gun right?" Mac paused.

"Yes sir" Speed held his bag up,

"Good, um, we'll explain our procedures on the way to the scene, I know we do a couple of things differently here" Mac explained.

"Yeah, Mac told me about how you fume at the scene instead of taking the thing back to the lab" Speed told them "It sounds like it saves a lot of time" he admitted.

"Your Lieutenant Caine seemed kind of freaked out about it at that first scene" Danny chuckled.

"Horatio can get kind of wound up at times, but he does it for the job" Speed smiled.

"Alright,so we'll get you a kit and then we really have to go!" Mac grinned.

"Welcome back to New York"

* * *

The boy was lying curled on his side, one arm twisted behind his back awkwardly. He was around seventeen, tall, his legs long and skinny. He had been beaten, but the cause of death was blood loss due to the knife in his chest.

"Poor kid" Speed stated, snapping a series of photo's of the body.

" Some one wanted him to suffer before he died" Danny said, "look at that, somebody kicked him hard enough they broke his arm clear in half" he crouched, running his finger along the unnaturally bent bone "God I hate that feelin" he shuddered.

"You get a lot of broken bones?" Speed asked.

"I did as a kid, I grew up in a pretty rough neighbourhood, our idea of hangin out was kicking each others asses" he half smiled.

"I think this kid was in foster care" Speed said.

"Yeah? How come?" Danny asked as Mac walked over.

"The clothes, they're kind of a shoddy fit, look worn in" Speed pointed out "My mom fostered when I was a little, I saw kids with clothes like this all the time…not for long, my mom would always get them new clothes as soon as possible but, I would be surprised if he wasn't in a foster home" Speed explained.

"Well you're right" Mac told them both "This was Max Spears, fifteen years old. He was living in this apartment building with his foster parents Jane and Larry Ford, and three other kids. He went to school about four blocks over. Aiden and Flack are on their way over their now to talk to his teachers and principal and when you two are finished here I want you to come up to the apartment with me and to talk to the family, see this kids room. He might have been involved in something and there could be evidence in his room"

The two younger CSI's nodded as Mac turned and walked away. "So how's Mac, as bosses go?" Speed asked "He seems like a good guy"

"He is. He used to be a marine, so he really believes in all that, honour and valour stuff, real proud of his country. He's the guy picked me to be a CSI, Ihad just graduated, top of my class, but he didn't have to hire me…I have kind of a bad rep cos of where I grew up…but he thought I could handle it" Danny told him.

"He married? I noticed the ring" Speed took another photo "And if I'm being rude just tell me, it's a CSI thing" he shrugged apologetically.

"Hey don't worry about it, I'm the same way. He was married, he's a…he's a widower. His wife Claire, she died on 9/11" Danny said quietly.

"Oh, man, poor guy" Speed said sincerely.

"Yeah. He had a hard time but we think he's startin to move on now" Danny used tweezers to pull a tiny shiny gem from _inside_ a cut on Max's face.

"I had somebody like that. See, when I turned up in Miami, I was living with my uncle and he had a friend worked at the crime lab. I used to follow him to work for something to do and I met Megan. She figured I was into science, told me what courses to take and sent me off to college. Then she made sure I got placed in Miami and looked out for me. Then about two years ago, her husband, who was a cop, died in the line of duty and she took six months leave, came back for almost a year then left again. She really loved her husband…I guess she just couldn't handle losing him" Speed frowned.

"That's harsh, losing someone like that, when its work related" Danny nodded.

"Yeah, like Horatio, his brother was an undercover cop, died in a shoot out…he only just caught the guy who did it" Speed said. "Raymond, that's H's brother, had a wife and kid, she's a detective…I always feel bad for Ray jr, the kid, he has this whole family that are cops, he must freak out all the time"

"Damn, that is bad!" Danny looked up at him "This isn't a macho trip thing, just since we're on the subject…you ever been shot?" He looked back at the body, angling his torch so that an odd substance on Max's skin reflected slightly.

As he took a sample on a Q-tip, Speed answered him, frowning at the substance as Danny swabbed it. "Yeah, actually…well sort of. It was a dispo day, and we where moving this huge shipment of heroin and coke and…a lot of drugs basically, and these guys had staged a robbery to steal the heroin we where planning to burn, and my gun misfired and some goon got right up close and shot me, pretty much point blank in the heart. But I had a vest on" Speed added quickly "Still hurt like a mother fucker though."

"Shit!" Danny exclaimed.

"Yeah. And then my luck just got worse, like, two or three weeks after that, me and the guy I was talking about before, Delko, we're in this club, tryna find us some women, and it goes up in flames, the whole building, burned to the ground" Speed frowned "And then a few weeks after _that_ we get called to a D.B in what we realise is this tweaker hang out, and one of these meth heads has rigged the place to blow up, which it does. That was a sucky year!" Speed said as if he'd just realised it.

Danny was staring at him. "Sorry" Speed said "I was just…reminiscing"

"Don't worry about it. "Danny said.

Speed turned away and began taking more photo's, apparently nonplussed by recalling the traumatic events. Danny grinned again and turned back to the body. There wasn't much more he could collect, so he moved to the ground. They where in an alleyway, a relatively clean one, and there wasn't much to go on.

"Hey check this out" he heard Speed yell.

Speed crouched by a dumpster a little way up the alley. Danny joined him.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's a watch" Speed picked the watch up, touching as little of it as he could.

"I can see that" Danny retrieved his kit from beside the corpse and pulled out the fumer.

"It's a new and relatively expensive watch, with a broken strap and…blood on the screw, in an alley way" Speed shone his torch on the tiny screw used to set the hands on the watch. There was blood, not a lot, but enough for DNA.

Speed took a sample of the blood and Danny fumed the watch, taking the prints as they rose.

"Good find" he told Speed.

They gave the scene ten more minutes but there wasn't much more to collect. When they where done they let the paramedics remove the body, checked around again and then headed up to the apartment, asking one of the uniforms where they needed to go.

When they got up there, Mac was talking to a crying forty something woman.

"This is Danny Messer and Tim Speedle, they work with me, would it be okay if they looked at Max's room?" Mac asked the woman when he saw Danny and Speed walk in.

The woman nodded and pointed down a corridor "On the end" she whispered sadly.

Danny and Speed walked by her and headed for Max's room.

"This is sad" Danny said as he pushed the door closed behind them "You ever get any kids like this when your mom took em on?" he asked Speed.

"A few. It was almost always the older kids, they'd be so afraid that they where gonna get moved again that they wouldn't unpack, they would barely even talk to any body. The saddest was when we got this kid Mitch. He was like this, didn't unpack any of his things, was always ready to leave. He was nine years old. The first few weeks he was living with us my mom cried every night" Speed stared around the bare room.

There where no posters on the walls, no photographs of family or friends. At the bottom of the otherwise empty cupboard, a suitcase full of clothes lay open, everything in it neatly folded and ready to be moved again. "He must have been moved every few months" Speed shook his head sadly "We can check his suit case for anything personal but I doubt we'll find much"

"This kid wasn't living in this room, he just happened to sleep here" Danny said, pulling open a few drawers just in case. They where all empty, so the CSI's pulled the case into the centre of the room and began to root through it carefully.

Danny went to the small desk and flicked through Max's school books and note pads. The boy had barely even put his name in the books.

"Nothing!" Danny said "Just clothes, this kid didn't have a single personal item unless you count his school books. Nothin to tie him to nobody. No gang colours either, or any drugs, shit" he sat back on his heels, frowning at Speed.

"So this kid just pissed off the wrong people or something?" Speed asked rhetorically.

There was a knock at the door and Mac stepped into the room.

"Whoah" he said, looking around the empty room.

"That's what we said" Danny said as he stood "There's nothing in here that ties this kid to anyone or anything, good or bad" he told his boss.

"It's a little depressing seeing a kid this unsettled" Speed put in.

Mac nodded. "Mrs Ford told me that this was Max's fourth home in these past twelve months, and that was by no means the most he's ever been in, in one year. She said she and her husband had decided that no matter what happened, they wouldn't be moving him again"

"This kid didn't believe that" Danny cast another look around the room " What's the story about him being moved into care any way?" he asked.

"His natural mother bailed on him, his dad was a very violent drunk, but also neglectful, he would eat on his way home from work and never brought any food in to the house, Max almost never got fed and took to sneaking into the kitchens at school to steal food. He'd eat it frozen he was so hungry. One day it made him sick and as soon as the nurse saw how skinny and bruised he was she called the cops, they called social services, he's been in the system ever since." Mac shrugged.

Danny was staring into the near distance. "Poor kid" he muttered "At least he got saved" he added, his voice oddly sad.

"Saved for this though? What's the news on his natural parents?" Speed looked at the still staring Danny for a second before directing his question to Mac.

"Actually, apparently a few weeks ago, his dad resurfaced. He claimed he's been in AA since Max was taken away and was sorry for what he'd done and wanted to start seeing Max again, just visitations. But Mrs Ford told me that Max's social worker told her, kinda off the books, that Max's father was thinking about trying to get Max back. He had said that he realised soon Max would be going off to college and he didn't want to lose him completely when he did. By some fluke, his dad's never been arrested, never been printed, it's the only way he had a chance at getting Max back." Mac shrugged "Max naturally didn't want to be anywhere near his dad and wouldn't go to the visits. His dad called up a few times asking to talk to him, then just stopped and the Fords haven't heard from him since. That was about a week ago"

"So we need to talk to his dad" Speed said.

"We have a rush on this case, office politics, so I want you two to go straight to the dads place and ask him if he's tried to get to Max, and I'll take what you collected back to the lab" Mac told them.

The walked out in to the corridor and saw a little girl staring at them, peeking between the door frame and door.

"Hi" Speed said softly to her.

"Hi" she said back. She couldn't have been more than nine years old.

"What's your name?" Speed stepped over and crouched in front of the girl as she pulled her door open.

"I'm Sara" the girl had long blonde hair and the biggest blue eyes Speed had ever seen.

"My name is Tim" he smiled at her "I like your bracelet" he nodded to the hand made looking bangle she wore on her wrist. It was basically beads and charms threaded on colourful string.

"Max made it for me" She smiled, holding her arm up.

"He did?" Speed frowned. "We kinda got the feeling that Max didn't really like it here" he said carefully.

Sara shook her head. "He didn't, he said he didn't want to be anybody's friend because he would just get moved again" She looked at the bracelet "but then he would talk to me. He used to go into the kitchen late at night to eat, because he didn't have dinner with the rest of us. I went in one time to get a glass of milk and he warmed it up for me, and after that I would also go and talk to him. He gave me this for my birthday last week, he said I was something special" She smiled sadly "He was starting to be happy here" she looked down at her feet.

"Did he say anything to you about having trouble with anybody?" Speed asked.

"He said once about not liking the school, but mostly he was upset about his dad. He said he didn't want to move again, especially not to go with his dad" She shrugged shyly. "He said if he had to go back with his dad he would run away"

"Do you think he meant it?" Speed latched on to the possible lead.

"I don't know. I think he might have. He really, really didn't want to go back with his dad" Sara told him.

"Well, thank you Sara, you've been very helpful" Speed told her "And if you can think of anything else at all that you think might help us figure out who hurt Max, you can call us…" He turned and looked at Danny who handed him a card.

"This is Danny's cell phone number and this" he pulled a pen and wrote his name and number on the back of a card "Is mine, you call us if you think of anything?" He handed her the card.

They left the apartment and Danny and Speed headed for the car with a copy of the fathers address. Danny drove while Speed sat in the passenger seat, bobbing his head as they cruised along.

"Hey are you okay? You seemed kind of…like you where taking this case personally" Speed asked, making the question casual.

"Yeah. I just, had it kind of hard at home when I was a kid and I always wanted to be able to leave. But then when I see cases like this, it just kinda, throws everything into turmoil" Danny shrugged, watching the road intently.

"How do you mean?" Speed glanced at him.

"Like whether or not I'm glad I never got taken into care. I mean my dad wasn't perfect but he had his good moments, there was times when he was the best dad in the world. I don't even know man, I just…cases with kids" he said by way of explanation.

"Don't worry, I know what you mean" Speed agreed.

"Its like…I remember all the times when I was a kid and my dad was drunk or hell, even just living in _that_ neighbourhood seemed like too much…I remember wishing that I could go into a foster home to get away. But then I see how hard foster kids have it and…I'm not glad I never went into care, but I am at the same time" Danny frowned deeply "I'm confusing myself here" he shook his head as if ridding himself of the confusion.

Speed just nodded.

* * *

Alistair Spears was drunk. Danny and Speed stared at him as he swayed in the doorway, their eyes identically cold and un amused.

"What do ya want?" Spears belched.

Speed didn't even try to hide his disgust, turning his face away from the old beer smell.

"Hey whatsamatter?" Spears growled, running the words together "Somethin wrong?" he sneered at Speed.

"Yeah, actually, there is" Speed told him "Can we come in?"

"Whatever you wanna say to me, say to me here, I got nothing to hide" He shouted into the corridor.

Danny and Speed stepped forward, pushing Alistair backwards into the apartment. They sat him in an armchair and looked around the apartment. It was trashed. There where cans, bottles, food wrappers, general garbage all over the place. But it looked new. The trained CSI' s could see where the room had been tidy and ordered beneath the litter, where the stains on the carpet where fresh and the layer of dust was still thin. They looked one another, eyebrows raised.

"Sir we have some bad news about your son Max" Danny started.

"That little punk! Thinks he's too good to see me now, thinks I'm not good enough for him! I got sober for that runt, and he wont see me now!" he growled.

"Sir, where were you today? This morning?" Danny asked.

"I was here. You got me out of bed to answer the door!" He yelled at them. His accent was as strong as Danny's but sounded rougher, harsher because of the alcohol.

"Sir, Max is dead" Danny said.

"What? He's dead? Little fucker probly jus' annoyed people anyway" Alistair sniffed, leaning around in his chair to feel out the beer bottles there. He found one that was half full and swigged it.

"You don't care somebody stabbed your kid?" Danny frowned.

"I ain't seen that brat in years, what do I care!" Alistair belched again.

"Sir somebody left your son to die in an alleyway outside the home he was living in" Speed stepped over and carefully, putting his finger in the neck of the bottle, removed the bottle from Alistair's hand and put it back on the ground "Are you sure you where in bed this morning?" he asked.

"You think I had something to do with this! I mighta hated that little shit but I wouldn't have killed him!" he yelled again.

"Why not you tried it before, cept that time you starved him!" Danny yelled right back.

"Oh that bullshit again!" Alistair banged his hand on the arm rest of his seat.

"You where feeling guilty about it a couple weeks ago, otherwise you wouldn't have tried to contact Max" Speed said, his voice as calm as ever.

"Yeah well, I wasn't myself then" Alistair grinned cruelly "Now, I'm feelin much better" he leaned over again to reach for the beer bottle.

Speed reached over and caught his wrist, his hand tightening almost imperceptibly. If Alistair hadn't started to struggle, it would have been impossible to tell Speed had done anything. "Hey this is brutality, lemme go, you're hurtin me!" He snapped.

"Now come on Alistair just answer our questions" Danny shrugged, thrusting his hands into his pockets.

"I told you already, you got me out of bed! I been asleep since I got in!" he told them.

"When was that?" Danny asked.

"I don't know, one thirty this morning I think" Alistair almost whined.

"When was the last time you bothered Max?" Danny walked around the apartment, poking through Alistair's belongings.

"I tried to call him about a week ago but that bitch he's stayin with told me not to call again" he tried to pull his arm back but Speed wouldn't let him. "I figured screw it" he admitted.

Speed let go slowly, his fingers popping he had been gripping so tightly.

Alistair rubbed his arm, glaring at Speed angrily. "You shouldn't have done that to me, I'm gonna report you!" He yelled again.

Speed leaned over so that he was inches away from Alistair, speaking into his ear "Go ahead" he stated "Call the cops and tell then that two cops investigating the death of a child, a boy that you starved and beat, tell them that these two detectives where mean to you, that one of them stopped you, an alcoholic from reaching for a bottle of beer. See how quick they send some one over here" His voice hadn't changed in town, he still spoke in that relaxed drawl.

He stood up straight.

As he and Danny walked out of the apartment, Alistair stood, grabbing the beer bottle.

Danny stepped left and Speed right as Alistair flung the bottle. It shattered on the wall across from the apartment door.

As Alistair slammed the door shut, Danny shouted "Thank you!"

"Public view" Speed shrugged as Danny began collecting the shards of glass, fuming each one as he picked them up.

"Got a direct print" Danny grinned "You piss people off a lot?" he turned the grin on Speed who shrugged.

"I don't practise it or anything…" he joked.

"Well we can compare this to what we got at the scene and see if dads lyin to us about where he was. But as much I hate to admit it, I think he's telling the truth about only just getting out of bed"

Speed nodded "He definitely smelled like he just got up" Speed grimaced.

"We should get back to the lab and compare this any way, and we can see what Aid and Flack found out at the school" Danny stood.

"I really want for him to be the one that did it" Speed said.

"So we can close the case quicker?"

"No, so we can tell the other guys in lockup he's a child abuser and just sit back and watch him get his ass kicked" Speed nodded to himself.

"Ooh, I like that" Danny agreed.

Aiden was resting her chin in her hands, waiting for her water to boil. She was drumming her fingers on the desk, humming a nonsensical tune as she waited.

"Aiden!" came Danny's all too familiar voice "What, you go so much free time on your hands your not going out to buy me things?" he asked her as his personality entered the room and a second later the rest of him followed.

Aiden couldn't help but smile as she looked up at the dirty blonde CSI. "What am I gonna buy you?" she asked.

"I always wanted a kitten" he told her "Or a bunny rabbit" he sat down beside her, leaning over to look at the paper she had been reading.

Aiden looked his profile as he chewed his lip while he read. From this angle, with the light from the window, his blue eyes looked impossibly bright, and she briefly marvelled at how long his eyelashes where. He had sleepy, heavy eyelids that gave him a permanently sleepy appearance, as if he had just woken up. He turned to look at her, smiling. Aiden fought not to jump, and fought not to 'wow' out loud at his eyes which from this proximity and in this light, looked like bottomless blue pools.

"What?" he asked her, smiling that Cheshire cat grin that she couldn't help but match.

"Personal space much? Move!" She pushed him away, unable to help noticing how firm his biceps where and cursing internally.

"What I can't try to read the news? We have a guest Aiden, you shouldn't be rude" Danny pointed to Speed whom Aiden hadn't realised was in the room.

He looked at her, half smiling and sank lower in his seat to get comfortable "Don't mind me" he shook his head "I'm just here for coffee"

"I was just making coffee" Aiden used it as an excuse to stand, turning away from Danny who shook his head "It's a damn shame when a beautiful woman has bad manners" he tutted "You agree Speed?"

"I don't think her manners are bad" Speed answered and Aiden dipped her head as she smiled, letting her hair hide her face.

"How do have your coffee?" She managed to ask, half turning to look at Speed.

"Just black please" told her.

"You want one Messer?" she asked as she prepared her own and Speed's.

"If it's not too much trouble I'd love a black coffee. And you can forget about the present for today, but next time we all go out drinkin, you're buyin the first round" Danny said.

"So Speed, first case in New York, how you enjoying it?" Aiden asked. She passed Speed his coffee and set Danny's down in front of him.

"I feel like it's a message from a higher power telling me to call my parents and go see them" he admitted "This kid in foster care, my mom bein a foster parent…" he scratched his curly black hair " It's just a little spooky"

"You mind my askin, what happened that made you leave?" Danny asked "I realise it's personal but…" Danny trailed off.

Speed nodded slowly "I had a friend who got in an accident, he was paralysed playing football. I went to college with the intention of getting a PHD and finding a way to cure my friend, and when I was two thirds of the way through my first year of college, he went into hospital for what was a routine surgery for a paraplegic and he died. It came out of nowhere and I…I don't know, I lost my passion for the whole thing and bailed" he shrugged again.

"I'm sorry about your friend" Danny said quietly.

Speed shook his head "Don't worry about it, it happened. If he had known how much I freaked he would probably have laughed at me any way, he was just like that, he hated big deals being made about him"

Danny and Aiden paused, unsure of what to say, but Speed saved them the trouble "But that was then, this is now, this case, what did you and Flack find out about Max?" he asked.

"Well, he wasn't popular, but he wasn't unpopular. The jocks singled him out for a beatin every now and then, the baseball team, but no one person ever exclusively bullied him. This came from the coach by the way, on some special weekend training thing with the team. I talked to a couple of the team members but they wheren't that helpful. I want to try and talk to them again after the practise is over so me and Flack got their addresses" Aiden told them.

"Why couldn't you talk to em then?" Danny sipped at his coffee.

"Their coach kept yellin em back to the practice, they got some huge game coming up that he's damn near having a stroke over" Aiden said.

"Did the coach let you know his feelings about the kid?" Speed asked.

"Not in any great detail, he said he only knew him through pullin the jocks off've him sometimes and cos this school announces when a foster kid comes in. Apparently a bunch of people in that neighbourhood foster" she told him.

"That's gotta make it difficult for those kids to settle in to school" Danny frowned.

"Apparently it's the policy at the school because these kids are high risk for behavioural problems and criminal activity" Aiden shrugged.

"Still…"Danny shrugged. "So you want to talk to the kids again…I think the other teachers too?" he suggested "Maybe one of these guys knew Max as more than just a face in the crowd"

Speed nodded in agreement as Stella breezed into the room. "I love the smell of closing a case in the morning, smells like" she took a deep breath in through her nose, savouring it "victory!"

"It's late afternoon" Danny said smiling innocently as Stella deflated.

"Shut up, I'm just too good a CSI for my own good, seriously, I scare my self" She smiled bitterly at Danny.

"What'd you do that's so amazing?" Danny asked her.

"You know I've been pulling a triple? Well I closed it" she told them "it was a home invasion turned homicide, whole place wrecked and not a shred of physical evidence, and Super Bonasera, that's me, finds a single print, just one on one of the shards of the shattered computer screen which leads me to the home of my suspect. I kick ass" she shook her head, apparently too over whelmed by her own greatness to speak any more.

"Hey good for you Stella" Aiden grinned at the older woman.

"And now, for my grand finale, I'm getting _the hell_ out of here and going to bed before Mac finds me and tries to assign me to another case. If he asks, I ran away to Mexico" she winked at everyone in the room and breezed back out.

There was a pause. "She always like that?" Speed asked, smiling.

"Well she's had a lot of coffee" Danny said.

Mac Taylor and Don Flack walked in to the room carrying manila folders.

"Your prints came back, and the trace from the scene" Mac told them.

"What's the news?" Danny asked.

"The print you got from Max's dad didn't match anything at the scene, so he's cleared. And the prints off the knife came back unknown, the knife is a kitchen knife, recently cleaned but otherwise totally un unique " Mac told them "The blood on the watch didn't match the vic, but one of the finger prints did, and the other print was an unknown so we're thinking it came off in the struggle. The substance Danny took off've the kids skin was…well Speed, Horatio told me you where a trace expert, what would you say it is, at a guess?" Mac looked up at Speed, raising an eyebrow,

Aiden, Danny and Flack all turned to look at Speed who seemed totally unfazed

"From just looking at it? Floor polish" Speed stated.

Mac stared at him for a beat then looked down at the folder "Yeah. Exactly right, its commercial floor polish, the type you would get everywhere, but most usefully to _us_ in schools, so we need to go back to the school and check what brand the janitor uses" Mac grinned at Speed. "How did you know that?" he asked.

"Well, the proximity to a school, the fact that it was a clear substance, it was stuck to his skin but it came off easily, it wasn't liquidy so it wasn't any kind of cosmetic moisturiser, but it was shiny so it was definitely used for some kind of polish or to make something shine" he stated.

The assembled detectives stared at him. "What?" he asked, seeming genuinely confused.

"That's like, Sherlock Holmes style deduction man, 'elementary'" Danny grinned, putting on a British accent.

"That's amazing" Aiden smiled at him.

"No way, that's a trick" Flack leaned back in his chair, running his hands through his hair.

Speed shook his head "It's just deduction, it's like, twenty questions" he told the blue eyed detective.

"That's impressive" Flack nodded.

"So, so far, all our evidence seems to point to the school, Flack told me you guys wanted to head back there any way so why don't you all head over their now, I think we need to print the students that are there now, and probably the coach too" Mac said "I'll go to the morgue and see if Hawkes has found anything else on the body"

Coach Harry Marsh regarded the shorter man disdainfully, sneering down at him. Danny was smiling again. "Sir it would just really help the investigation if you would let us take your finger prints" Danny was trying to be polite " I don't understand why this is such a problem for you"

"Because if it gets out that I gave my prints in an investigation into a murder, I'll be run out if this school!" Harry snapped angrily, stepping closer to Danny as he spoke.

Harry was six feet four and built like a brick wall, broad in the shoulders and muscled from working out every day.

Danny was five feet eight and while he was toned and in shape, he was slight with it.

Harry had clearly meant to intimidate Danny by stepping up so close but Danny just turned his million watt grin even brighter, having to crane his neck so that he was looking almost straight up at Harry. Harry sniffed at him. "You got a cold Harry?" Danny asked.

Harry took a breath, pushing out his chest and flexing his arms. Danny still smiled but his eyes grew cold and hard. He bit his lip but didn't break eye contact with Harry.

Harry realised he wasn't going to win and stepped back. "You're a bully Harry" Danny stated.

"What are you talking about?" Harry turned away.

"Nothing. So are you gonna give me your finger prints?" Danny asked, picking up one of the baseball bats and swinging it experimentally.

Over by the bleachers Aiden, Speed and Flack where talking to baseball players as they lined up nervously to give prints.

"Look I'll give you my prints, but I'm not fuckin' happy about it" Harry snapped.

"That's nice of you Harry" Danny swung the bat hard at nothing. "So listen, can you tell me any more about this Max kid?" he asked as Harry turned to watch him swing.

"Like I told your cute little friend, Max wasn't anything special here, he didn't make waves, he got hassled by the guys sometime but more often that not he asked for it by giving lip" Harry shrugged "This is a tragedy but I cant help you learn about him any more" he watched Danny again "You played before?" he pointed as Danny swung.

"As a kid" Danny put the bat down and leant on it like a walking stick. "So he wasn't anybody special. What does that mean? Was he involved in any groups, any clubs?" he asked.

"No, not that I know of" Harry looked out across the baseball pitch. "Fuller!" He yelled suddenly "Pick it up, get your head in the game, you been fumbling all day!"

"Who's that?" Danny pointed to the tall, skinny kid who nodded nervously.

"Dennie Fuller, great pitcher but he's been freakin out all day, pre game jitters" Harry told him distractedly.

"That happen a lot?" Danny asked.

"No, but this game is a big fuckin deal" the coach picked up a ball.

"Who's that guy?" Danny pointed as a bull disguised as a seventeen year old boy stepped up to the plate.

"That's Mickey O'Murphy, that's the kid who's gonna be winnin every game for the Yankees in a couple years. You a batsman?" Harry looked at Danny again.

"No I pitched but I was an alright batter. So Mickey O'Murphy, he know Max at all?" Danny pointed to the kid with the bat.

"They had some classes together I think. You wanna hit a couple" Harry nodded to the bat.

"Sure" Danny moved into the practice net, hoisting the bat to his shoulder. "So what classes?" He asked.

"English, history and uh…a lab, biology I think" Harry pulled on a mitt and took his stance "You okay with fast balls or you wannna warm up?"

"Let me warm up first. You had to pull these players off Max sometimes right? You need a crane to move Mickey?"

Harry threw a gentle underarm ball that Danny clipped easily right back to him. "Mickey does what I tell him, I tell him to move he'd move" Harry threw again.

"You ever need to tell him to move off Max?" Danny was warming up.

"Once or twice I had to but it was nothing serious" Harry changed his stance slightly.

Danny matched the change, tightening his grip on the bat.

Flack was staring at them while Speed and Aiden continued to print the players who, instead of going back to their practice where now stopping to watch the odd exchange.

"How do you mean nothing serious?" Danny asked, removing his jacket and throwing it to the ground. He dropped into a lower crouch, lowering his head slightly.

"I mean it was just guys rippin on guys" Harry's pitch went wild and he picked up another ball.

"A big S.O.B like that rips on a skinny kid two hundred ponds lighter than him and its just guys rippin guys?" Danny popped his neck.

"What are you tryna say?" Harry threw again and Danny clipped it but it went high and fell behind him.

"Just that a guy like Mickey doesn't _just_ rip on a guy like Max is all. Max ever play baseball?" Danny swung at another pitch but it went high on its own.

"Uh, yeah, he tried out a couple times but he didn't make the cut" Harry shook his wrist out.

"Why not?" Danny took the opportunity to dig his feet in.

"He just didn't have what we where after, wasn't quite strong enough, couldn't pitch, couldn't bat, just wasn't good enough" Harry dropped back into his crouch.

"Well Harry, if you're a coach, surely the point is to _make_ him good enough? Isn't that what you do, isn't that what it means to coach" Danny smiled again.

"You must know how this goes, if there's no talent at all we move onto the guys who have talent and we make them better than they are" Harry threw a straight pitch which Danny sent whistling almost directly over Harry's shoulder.

Harry span away from the ball, fixing Danny with a glare.

"But aren't you supposed to try and include foster kids? I mean they're high risk for falling in with the wrong crowd right? So you're supposed to go out of your way to include them in teams and groups, no matter if they're good or not" Danny matched the glare.

"Why should I waste my time on a no talent loser when I got kids like Fuller an O'Murphy to coach? I'm not gonna waste my time tryna teach this kid something he oughta know anyway when kids like these two, kids with a future need me to tell em what's what!" Harry threw another straight pitch that Danny clipped back his way.

"So you think Max was a loser?" Danny saw Harry pause.

"Yeah I thought he was a loser, he didn't get involved, he didn't talk to people, he didn't try" Harry snapped.

"So that was it, you just give up on him. Harry let me ask you something, you said Mickey does what you tell him, you ever ask him to show Max that people like him aren't wanted" Danny asked and Harry threw a killer fast ball directly at his head.

Danny dropped the bat and hit the floor as the ball whizzed by his head a hairs breadth away from hitting him.

Flack had been walking toward them as they spoke and now ran, grabbing Harry's arm and dragging him backwards. "Danny, you okay?" he called out as Danny stood, dusting himself off.

"I'm fine, I'm great" Danny glared at Harry. "Harry gimme that one again okay, when I'm ready for it this time" Danny walked out into the pitch proper and took his place over the plate.

Flack looked at Harry, then at Danny. Danny nodded to him and Flack let Harry go.

Speed walked over to wear Flack stood. "What's he doin?" he asked.

"I don't know but Harry is _pissed_" Flack said, "that head shot wasn't an accident, Danny said something to him"

"And he threw something…huh" Speed said "That's kind of a running theme here today" he noted.

"You know, it is" Flack agreed.

Harry lined up the pitch and threw as hard as he could. Danny swung the bat hard and the team of seventeen year olds swore and pointed as the ball sailed out of sight.

Harry, red faced stormed over to Aiden and pushed through the few boys waiting to have their prints taken. He let Aiden take his and stormed out of sight, heading into the changing room. Danny sniffed and dropped the bat, walking over to Speed and Flack, his entire posture saying 'it was nothing'.

"He did something" He told them "I'm liking the big kid O'Murphy for this. And maybe the skinny one, Fuller"

Speed smiled "You piss people off a lot?" he asked.

"Well I don't practice…"Danny told him, and as they laughed Flack stood staring at them, un able to figure out what was so funny.

* * *

"It's a match" Mac told Danny over the phone "The print off the watch matches this kid Fuller and the knife belongs to O'Murphy"

They had sent Aiden back to the lab with the prints while they stayed behind at the school, unwilling to leave in case Coach Marsh or any of his team members had tried to run. "I want to arrest the coach too Mac,I got a feeling he got them to do this" Danny told him.

"Well once we bring these kids in we can see about offering them a deal maybe. Bring him in and we'll hold him 'til we can get them to break and give him up. If you need a charge, say assaulting a police officer, Aiden told me about that fast ball he tried to take you're head off with" the older CSI told him.

Danny clicked the phone closed and pocketed it.

Speed and Flack where talking to the players who sat on the bleachers as Danny walked over.

"Fuller and O'Murphy, you wanna come talk to me?" he called out.

The skinny Fuller and ripped O'Murphy looked at one another and began to make their way down the bleachers slowly.

"What do you want?" O'Murphy asked, his voice painfully deep.

"I want you to tell me what Max ever did to you you punk" Danny snapped as he and Flack grabbed the kid and snapped cuffs on his wrists.

Speed grabbed Fuller and pushed the kids sleeve back to reveal a fairly deep cut on his wrist. "We found your watch kid" he shrugged as Fuller frowned at him.

"My watch!" Fuller realized what Speed meant as Flack stepped back and began to mirandize the pair.

"We'll go get Marsh" Danny told Flack as he began to walk the teenagers to his car.

Speed and Danny headed in the direction Harry had gone an hour ago, heading into the changing rooms where according to the players, he had an office. The changing rooms where dimly lit and air conditioned , a welcome relief to the sun and heat from outside. They headed for the back of the room, where the office was located. It was basically two walls with picture windows and a door, built into a back corner. At the present, the blinds on the windows where down.

Speed knocked on the door "Mr Marsh we need to talk to you" he said, drawing his weapon as Danny did.

There was no reply so Speed knocked again, harder and louder.

Once again there was no answer so Speed leaned across and turned the handle, letting the door swing open on its own. The both moved into the even dimmer office, guns up. It was empty. "Shit. You think he figured we'd be coming after him?" Danny whispered.

"Even if he did those players said there was only one way in and out of this place" Speed hissed back.

The window beside them shattered inwards as Harry swung his bat at it. Danny and Speed dropped to the ground as shards of glass rained around them. An arm like a tree trunk reached through the window and grabbed the back of Danny's collar, wrenching him up and out.

Speed was on his feet in a heartbeat and vaulted the window frame, feeling glass embed itself in his palm as he did. He brought his gun up as Harry shoved Danny to the ground "Freeze Harry!" He snapped.

Harry turned to face him. " Did you see what he did? He embarrassed me infront of my whole team!" he roared "Just like that fucking Max did, coming in here actin like he should be allowed to play! Those boys out there need to know they can respect me, I can't be embarrassed by these low lives!"

Speed kept his gun on Harry but glanced quickly at Danny who was starting to raise himself up on his elbows. He looked like he was cut up, bleeding badly.

"Harry you don't want to tell me this, come with me and we'll get you a lawyer" Speed said as soothingly as he could.

Harry rushed him, moving faster than a big man should and Speed cursed as Harry hit him like a Mac truck. Speed fell back and the back of his head bounced off the concrete floor hard enough that he saw spots but he scrambled backwards as Harry punched where Speeds head had been. "Harry don't make this worse" Speed yelled, kicking out Harry's shoulder. His boot connected and Harry roared, again. The big man grabbed at Speed's leg and dragged Speed back, gripping Speed's throat as it came into reach.

He squeezed, almost impossibly hard and Speed tried to bring his gun up but Harry smacked his hand and sent the gun skidding away. Speed grabbed at Harry's hand, tried to reach his face but Harry kept his head back out of reach.

Speed's heart was thumping painfully in his ears and he was beginning to black out. Then Danny tackled Harry from the ground, rolling so he was on top of the man and bouncing the bigger guys head off the floor hard. Harry was conscious but drowsy enough that Danny could snap cuffs on him and punch him once, hard enough to knock him out.

Speed rolled onto his side, squinting at Danny who was actually sitting on Harry, one hand pressed to a bloody wound in his side.

"How bad is that?" Speed half pointed to the cut, his voice a painful croak.

"it's actually worse than it looks, and I'm not just saying that" Danny grimaced "it really fuckin hurts though" he told Speed "Hows ya throat?"

"As long as I don't try to breath through it I think I'll be okay" Speed sat up slowly. "So is it always this interesting in New York?"

"You know what, when we switch and it's one of _us_ going down there with you guys, I'm bein the guy who goes to visit you, and if you can't top this day, I'll let old Harry here loose in Miami, see what kind have fun you guys have" Danny joked.

"I can top this easily" Speed shrugged.

"How?"

"You get my ass kicked by a perp?" Speed asked.

"yeah"

"I'll feed you to an alligator"

* * *

Danny Messer climbed the stairs to Mac's office, knocking on the glass door, remembering his own trip through a broken window a few weeks previously. He had only just gotten the stitches out for that one. Mac looked up and motioned him in.

"What's up Mac? Can you make this quick, I got a lot of paper work to finish before I can even go home and pack for this Miami trip" he told the ex marine.

"Danny sit down for a second" Mac said quietly.

Danny sat, tapping his hands on his legs.

"Danny you wont be going to Miami" Mac said "There's no easy way to say this so I'll just say it…Last week, there was a case in Miami, a kidnapping…there was an officer involved shooting…Tim Speedle was killed. I know you two hit it off while he was here, so I wanted you to hear this from me" Mac looked at him "I'm sorry Danny"

Like I said, kind of a one shot deal, but let me know what you think and I'll see if I cant bring our favourite Miami-er back from the dead!

xxxx


End file.
